Welcome to the inaugural E-cast of the Breckenridge Zone’s Bare Facts. I am your host, T. R. Ursidae.
We ask your indulgence for any lack of smoothness as we learn and build experience in E-casting.
Our goal is to peel away the spin, the doublespeak, the gobbledygook, to ask the obvious unasked questions and to remind people of the reality they so often live in willful denial of.
We seek to bring critical thinking and logic to bear on public policy by generating open debate based on the bear facts that are exposed by peeling away the layers of machination and subterfuge.
Because as it says in the Tao of James: Reality does not care what you want to be fact, reality does not care what you believe to be fact, Reality simply is what IS.
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At the bare facts we very much enjoyed the Freudian slip contained in the BC Liberal’s attack ad aimed at BC Conservative leader John Cummins.
“Just what we need, another unprincipled politician.” The context another is contained in seems to imply that it is not just one other BC politician that is unprincipled but that all, or nearly all, BC politicians are unprincipled.
A conjecture supported by the unprincipled duplicity demonstrated by the BC NDP since their successful support of extinguishing the HST. Since then the air waves have been full of NDP mla’s crying crocodile tears and condemning the BC Liberal government for the budget tightening, leading to program cuts, that is the consequence of ripping Billions of Dollars out of the BC budget by extinguishing the HST.
Except for Mr Dix who seems to be avoiding visibility in order to avoid reminding voters of the sight of \ Mr Dix going around thanking people for helping the NDP extinguish the HST; seeking no doubt to avoid attracting voter anger at the budget cutting (program cuts) needed to reduce expenditures as a result of the financial fallout from extinguishing the HST
If the NDP was all that worried about program cuts they should not have been playing politics by supporting extinguishing the HST.
Rather Unprincipled behaviour that continues as they blast the government for the consequences of the NDP’s successful support of extinguishing the HST.
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Speaking of the outcome of the extinguish the HST referendum and the painful financial fallout of extinguishing the HST it would appear the voters of BC are seriously in need of being told to ‘Get Real”.
After voting to rip billions of dollars out of the budget and return $1.6 billion to Ottawa the voters of BC are demanding – at an increasing rate – that the provincial government spend, spend, spend, ignoring or in wilful denial of the fact voters have reduced government revenue by billions of dollars – a reality which requires belt tightening and thus program cuts.
Just what did the voters think was going to happen after they ripped billions of dollars out of the provincial budget.
Is it that they DID NOT THINK or that they live in a fantasy land where there is a grove of money trees growing out behind the legislature?
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Of course the Media is as guilty or perhaps are the most guilty – given the major part media played in successfully extinguishing the HST – of ignoring the financial reality the province must deal with as a consequence of extinguishing of the HST.
The fallout, budget cuts and program closures, makes it easy for media to find lots of budget cuts and program closures to report on in order to increase their bottom lines.
I suppose, when you thinks about it, we shouldn’t be surprised that media is not reminding those demanding more services or the continued funding of programs that the citizens of BC voted to substantially reduce the funds the province has to provide services any more than it was not surprising that Media avoided reminding voters of the very significant consequences of extinguishing the HST.
Reminding people of the reality – either of extinguishing the HST or of the state of BC’s finances as a result of having extinguishing the HST – would only serve to cut into the ease of getting bottom line improving theatrical ‘stories’. Not to forget running the potential risk of having voters suffering the consequences of the belt tightening necessary – of the important role Media played in extinguishing the HST by playing up the street theatre aspects of the extinguish the HST campaign while effectively ignoring the financial consequences.
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The current media street theatre circus compounds the difficulty of dealing with the financial realities BC faces because the BC Liberal caucus clearly lacks backbones. This lack of backbone and the overriding desire to get re-elected and continue feeding so handsomely from the public trough – at any cost – has led to policy and decision making based on the theatrics of the presentation made by media rather than basing the hard decisions involved in living within the new means imposed by extinguishing the HST on priorities and careful thought
the Reality of the dire state of the provinces finances and the fact BC is in a financial straightjacket means there is no extra funding to reinstate programs. The funding that keeps the recycling program in Maple Ridge or the program at Douglas college going into next year comes from other programs and/or areas of the budget.
Rather than vigorously patting themselves on the back for the reinstatement of funding – Media and voters – might want to consider who it is that is going to suffer paying the price for reinstating that funding and what that price is.
The potential for Irony is mindboggling. How – poetically justice ironic – if the practice of robbing peter to pay paul ( in this case appeasing the media and the public) leads in a few months to the Maple Ridge recycling program etc being back in the spotlight – having lost their funding to reinstate some other program that lost its funding to reinstate the funding and so on and so and so on….. *******************************************************************************************
If we don’t stop and at all levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) take a hard look at what the financial realities are, then make plans that reflect that financial reality. Plans based on priorities, hard thought and ethics – letting go of greed and ‘me first’ we are going to find ourselves going around in circles and ending up where we started having accomplished nothing but wasting resources.
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Finally, might we suggest to Vancouver’s Rock 101 and the firm advertising their electrical services on Rock 101 that we at the Bare Facts (and I suspect most consumers) have no interest in what someone is ‘not afraid to tackle’ . when we are looking for an electrical contractor what we are interested in is what they are competent to tackle. You can live with whatever fear someone competent might have given the fact that with electricity – incompetence can kill you.
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That’s the Bare Facts for Thursday September 22, 2011.
Remember your best defence against Politicians, Media, Big Business and others seeking to bamboozle you and manipulate you – is thinking.